Search Resource Library (Repository)

This poster was presented at the 2021 NSF AISL Awardee Meeting. Thousands of webcams available to the public are operated by STEM organizations, such as zoos, museums, and government agencies. However, as of yet no research has quantified any aspect (cognitive, behavioral, or emotional) of viewer outcomes. Our objective is to build foundational knowledge about basic aspects of STEM webcams in...

This poster was presented at the 2021 NSF AISL Awardee Meeting. Many informal learning institutions use STEAM approaches to engage diverse learners. Our project aims to support educators in libraries, museums, and after school programs through a STEAM professional development (PD) series. Our PD approach is centered around a set of core STEAM practices that prioritize STEAM mindset and identity work....

This poster was presented at the 2021 NSF AISL Awardee Meeting. This project presents a framework of outcome progressions developed through a virtual convening. ...

This poster was presented at the 2021 NSF AISL Awardee Meeting. This project is a retrospective study to explore the long-term impact of STEM programming. The study follows up with participants to ask questions like "Where are they now? What mattered? What difference did it make? and What’s next?" ...

This poster was presented at the 2021 NSF AISL Awardee Meeting. Makerspaces and making-related programs are often inaccessible, unaffordable, or simply not available to underserved youth. This three-year, Innovations in Development project involves partnership with four Recreation Centers (two each in Baltimore and Pittsburgh) to (1) train educators in equity-oriented approaches to making, (2) create four learning hubs, (3) develop and...

This poster was presented at the 2021 NSF AISL Awardee Meeting. Head Start on Engineering is an ongoing initiative focused on empowering families to use engineering to help their children thrive. We aspire to collaborate as equal partners with the communities we serve and inform a more equitable vision for engineering education in our society. ...

This poster was presented at the 2021 NSF AISL Awardee Meeting. This project conducted a Delphi Study to investigate the question "What do experts think drive better outcomes in climate adaptation workshops?". ...

This poster was presented at the 2021 NSF AISL Awardee Meeting. Today’s young people have a personal stake in their ability to function with data. Future job prospects might hinge on their ability to participate in the new data economy. But equally, young people are themselves the subjects of data. The datafication of young people’s lives leads to profound questions about...

This poster was presented at the 2021 NSF AISL Awardee Meeting. Middle Ground Expanded (MGE), an interactive public placemaking project, showcases social-science concepts and transforms underutilized places into informal learning platforms. This broad implementation project is a collaboration between the Exploratorium, Urban Alchemy, San Francisco Recreation and Parks, and the San Francisco Public Library. Sixteen columns housing interactive, multilingual exhibits will help...

This poster was presented at the 2021 NSF AISL Awardee Meeting. The project created a multi-person, collaborative touchtable museum exhibit experience engaging guests in Zooniverse’s Galaxy Zoo citizen science project. ...

Inclusive science communication, or ISC, upends the traditional approaches of science communication by centering the values of inclusion, equity, and intersectionality. To help more science communication and informal learning practitioners and researchers apply the key traits of ISC in their work, collaborators at the University of Rhode Island, the University of Oregon, and Florida International University created a new “Inclusive Science Communication Starter...

As several recent National Academies of Sciences reports have highlighted, greater science communication research is needed on 1) communicating chemistry, and 2) building research-practice partnerships to advance communication across science issues. Here we report our insights in both areas, gathered from a multi-year collaboration to advance our understanding of how to communicate about chemistry with the public. Researchers and practitioners...

Chemistry is a vital and highly relevant field of science that is under-represented in science centers and museums. Amidst concerns that the public is ambivalent about the chemistry field, the Explore Science: Let's Do Chemistry project sought to understand how to design hands-on activities that could increase the feelings of interest, relevance, and self-efficacy around chemistry. Using design-based research, the team tested...

ChemAttitudes: Using Design-Based Research to Develop and Disseminate Strategies and Materials to Support Chemistry Interest, Relevance, and Self-Efficacy (ChemAttitudes, NSF DRL-1612482) is a collaborative project between the Museum of Science, Boston (MOS), the National Informal STEM Education Network (NISE Net), and the American Chemical Society (ACS) among others. As a part of this project, researchers and educators from MOS and...

This poster was presented at the 2021 NSF AISL Awardee Meeting. Very little is known about the experiences of people with learning disabilities in informal learning environments. The Intrinsic Motivation in Science Museums: Learning from and Broadening Participation of Visitors with Learning Disabilities project will describe ways engagement and intrinsic motivation for learning are and are not supported for science museum...

This poster was presented at the 2021 NSF AISL Awardee Meeting. The project's goals are to: Develop systems thinking skills in youth Increase understanding of sustainable agricultural systems Raise awareness of STEM careers related to agricultural systems Leverage scientific research models and data for educational video games Use the Corn-Water-Ethanol-Beef System as a model for interconnected Food, Energy, Water Systems (FEWS) ...

This poster was presented at the 2021 NSF AISL Awardee Meeting. The Rural Activation and Innovation Network (RAIN) project aims to engage, support and better understand rural communities in:  Changing perceptions of the importance of STEM Learning Leveraging of local STEM resources and expertise with Rural Innovation Councils (RICs) Strategic Planning embedding asset maps, gap analysis, budget, media, and communication. ...

This poster was presented at the 2021 NSF AISL Awardee Meeting. Collaborative robots – cobots – are designed to work with humans, not replace them. What learning affordances are created in educational games when learners program robots to assist them in a game instead of being the game? What game designs work best? ...

This poster was presented at the 2021 NSF AISL Awardee Meeting. Free-choice learning occurs when individuals make choices about what, where, how, and who they participate with in their self-motivated learning activities. This project explores how different people, living in the same geographic region, make plants and gardening a part of their lives. We explore how adult community members choose to participate...

This poster was presented at the 2021 NSF AISL Awardee Meeting. Project Harvest is a co-created citizen science project that investigates the quality of household environments in Arizona communities neighboring active or legacy mining and/or toxic release. Project Harvest is a response to the community-driven questions, “Are there pollutants in harvested rainwater? Can I use the harvested rainwater for my garden?" ...

This poster was presented at the 2021 NSF AISL Awardee Meeting. To engage youth in global challenges such as energy issues, students’ own community can serve as personally relevant venues for scientific inquiry. For example, after students learn about heat transfer in school, they can use this knowledge to inspect the energy efficiency of their own schools and public buildings in their...

This poster was presented at the 2021 NSF AISL Awardee Meeting. The Reflecting on Practice program is designed for organizations to adopt and implement themselves, rather than having an outside expert come on-site or sending select individuals out to participate. The intention is for the community to learn about learning together, and in the process shape the language and meanings by which...

This poster was presented at the 2021 NSF AISL Awardee Meeting. This research draws from scholarship on bonds between people and places to help understand the growing knowledge, community, and personal outcomes linked to place-based citizen science experiences. Following an analysis of the place attachment (PAT) (an emotional bond between a person and a place) of participants in the Coastal Observation and...

This pilot and feasibility project will explore whether participation in informal science initiatives like citizen science, which is a form of Public Participation in Scientific Research, can foster or enhance participant attachment to the natural places participants investigate via these programs. The project also examines if participant attachment to place influences the development or application of critical thinking skills among...

This poster was presented at the 2021 National Science Foundation (NSF) Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) Awardee Meeting. The goal of this two-year project is to examine systemic issues within learning spaces and provide educators with anti-racist approaches that validate and uplift Black learners. Through a combination of media, educator and role model professional development, and intentional outreach, Black SciGirls will create more...